Introducing AutoCAD 2008
If you're drawing a part that must be machined within a certain range of dimensions, you can use a tolerance dimension. Tolerance lets you specify a tolerance range for features in your drawing. It produces a note that uses industry-standard notation, as shown in Figure 10.15.
To use the Tolerance command, enter tol↲ at the command prompt or choose Dimension è Tolerance from the drop-down menu to open the Geometric Tolerance dialog box (see Figure 10.16).
This is where you enter tolerance and datum values for the feature control symbol, which indicates the type of tolerance asked for in a tolerance dimension. You can enter two tolerance values and three datum values. In addition, you can stack values in a two-tiered fashion (vertically).
Click a box in the Sym group to open the Symbol dialog box (see Figure 10.17).
Figure 10.18 shows what each symbol in the Symbol dialog box represents. The bottom image shows a sample drawing with a feature symbol used on a cylindrical object.
In the Geometric Tolerance dialog box, you can click a box in any of the Datum groups or a box in the right side of the Tolerance groups to open the Material Condition dialog box (see Figure 10.19). This dialog box lets you add a material condition symbol.